Shifting Perspectives

Friday, February 24th, 2017

A while back, I took acting classes, one of which involved me doing a monologue (which is basically when one person stands in front of the audience for an extended period of time and speaks directly to them). This monologue was from the playwright Eric Bogosian and the title was “Pounding Nails in the Floor with my Forehead.”

And although this monologue was meant to be funny, it kept coming out as if I was angry, not the emotion I wanted to portray to the audience. This left me feeling frustrated with myself and unsure what to do in order to quit sounding mad so I might actually make them laugh.

At one point my teacher, one of the best teachers I’ve actually ever had, sensed my struggle and said, “Red. Stop for a second and come sit in my seat.” I wasn’t quite sure what good that was going to do but, like a good student, I complied, trusting in the fact that he knew what he was doing (when I clearly felt like I didn’t). Then he gave me my next command. “Now do the monologue.”

In my mind, I’m thinking, “What? How am I going to do the monologue from this audience seat?” Most importantly, I wondered how changing my physical location was ever going to help me change my tone enough for the correct effect. But again, I trusted my teacher so I did as he asked. The result? The monologue suddenly sounded exactly like it was supposed to…funny.

That day I learned that sometimes you have to move your physical space in order to change your perspective and get better results. In this case, it took me leaving the theater stage and sitting in an audience member’s chair to shift my thoughts enough to shift the monologue tone as well. So, if you’re not achieving what you want in your life, maybe moving your space is the one thing that can help you overcome your hurdles and create better results.

For example, if you work behind a computer all day and find that you spend more time fiddling with your ink pen than typing out your marketing goals or coming up with new products or services, why not take your laptop and head to a coffee shop instead? Leaving the quiet office scene and going someplace where people come and go all day may just stoke your creativity, making it easier to come up with new thoughts and ideas that can take you and your business to higher levels.

Or if you feel like you’ve been treading water for some time in your career—expending lots of energy but not really getting anywhere—a change of space may be exactly what you need to start moving forward again. This could involve taking a day off and going to a conference, networking with others and motivating you to keep going, or taking a class to learn more in an area that you struggle (marketing, product development, etc.) and enabling you to begin to make progress again.

By changing your physical space, you’re better able to change your mental perspective. When you see things from a different angle, you get a better view of solutions or ideas that you didn’t know existed simply because you’re looking at them differently than ever before.

This process can be amazingly transformational, helping you achieve whatever it is you want to achieve. And you can do it solely by taking a step in another direction, giving you a better view.